‘Attack by Association’ Viewed as Fair Game by McCain Camp

 Don’t be shocked if you see the McCain campaign pull the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright out of mothballs in new attacks against one-time parishioner, Barack Obama.

McCain advisers say that they see “attack by association” as fair game now, arguing that Obama’s campaign has been using that technique to go after McCain. In particular, the Obama campaign has hammered McCain on the stump and in TV ads on the number of one-time lobbyists working for his campaign. (The McCain campaign is also angry about a Spanish-language TV ad that ties McCain to Rush Limbaugh on immigration, without ever saying that McCain took on Limbaugh and others to fight for comprehensive immigration reform.)More...

“They played it one way, we played it another way,” said one of McCain’s top advisers, Mark Salter. “Now we’re both going to play it the same way.”

McCain began that effort this week by linking Obama to Democrats Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines, former executives at Fannie Mae. Johnson was named to head Obama’s vice presidential search before he stepped down amid controversy. Raines is a supporter of Obama.

In April, McCain said that he did not believe that Obama shared Wright’s controversial views and said he opposed an anti-Obama advertisement that invoked his name run by the North Carolina Republican party. But he also suggested that the subject was fair play after Obama said that questions about Wright were “a legitimate political issue.”

“If he believes that,” McCain said in April, “then it will probably be a political issue.”

(Click here to read the full article)  

John Gibson Highlights the Obvious that Dems have their Hands Very Dirty in the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Collapses

Click here to watch the video and read the article. 

How McCain Can Win - Sean Oxendine, Next Right

If we wake up the morning after election day looking at a McCain Presidency, and people talk about the “shocking” result, what were the warning signs? What should we have been looking at in order to see this coming?

I think a good way to approach this is to take a look at all of the supposed Obama advantages, and look at the evidence why they won’t play out the way that we have expected that they would

(Click here to read the full article) 

FORMER HILLARY CLINTON ACTIVISTS MIGUEL D. LAUSELL AND LUCHY SECAIRA ENDORSE JOHN MCCAIN

The Obama camp cannot be enjoying Clintonites shunning his messianic campaign.  Here's the release from the McCain campaign:

FORMER HILLARY CLINTON ACTIVISTS MIGUEL D. LAUSELL AND LUCHY SECAIRA ENDORSE JOHN MCCAIN

As Democrats for McCain Ranks Continue to Grow, "Change Is Coming"

ARLINGTON, VA -- The McCain-Palin presidential campaign today announced the endorsement of Miguel D. Lausell, Senior Political Advisor to Hillary Clinton, and Clinton Delegate-at-Large Luchy Secaira.
 
"Although I supported Hillary during the primaries, I now support John McCain and Governor Palin because I am putting my country first," said Secaira, former Hillary Clinton Florida Delegate-at-Large. "They have the experience and judgment to lead America through these difficult times, and I trust them to work with Democrats to do the right thing for our country."
 
Lausell, who advised Senator Clinton on a variety of issues including international trade, telecommunications and Latino affairs, added, "John McCain has a long record of reforming government and working across the aisle to achieve bipartisan results. His courageous leadership is exactly what we need in the White House, and I am convinced that John McCain is the right leader at the right time for our nation."

(Click here to read the full article)  

Obama Heckled By Blacks In Florida

Barack Obama has a problem with Black Hecklers.  (Click here to watch the video) 

Race, Redistribution, and the Bully Pulpit

Excerpt:

Obama’s history up to now could be characterized as that of a “Unifier,” as long as we remember that, in his world, there really has been only one agenda. Obama successfully worked his way into Chicago political ranks, not as an agent of change, but as a minion of Mayor Daley. During his time in the US Senate, Obama has maintained a one party mentality (that he cites a widely-accepted, politically insignificant nuclear non-proliferation treaty as reaching across party lines is laughable), rarely straying from the liberal position.

The most powerful son of ACORN has done them proud. Obama is taking his honed bullying & blackmail tactics to the ultimate national stage. ACORN is planting their teams in cities across the US to intimidate voters. Voters better watch out - lipstick on a pig may not be pretty, but lipstick on an “empty suit” is uglier still.

(Click here to read the full article)  

Blocking Care for Women - Sen. Hillary Clinton & Cecile Richards, NY Times

LAST month, the Bush administration launched the latest salvo in its eight-year campaign to undermine women’s rights and women’s health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would govern family planning. It would require that any health care entity that receives federal financing — whether it’s a physician in private practice, a hospital or a state government — certify in writing that none of its employees are required to assist in any way with medical services they find objectionable.

Laws that have been on the books for some 30 years already allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception.


(Click here to read the full article)

An Interesting Bill Clinton Interview Seemingly Pro-Obama but with Weird Subtextual Bombs Obama won't be Happy about

Posted at http://thejtandbearshow.com/, reposted here to share:

This is a strange interview with Bill Clinton. Watch the first 3:40:

The weird but surprisingly objective moments:

1) Obama's recent bounce in the polls is because of economic distress.  Is Clinton saying without the distress Obama would still be down? That seems to be saying Obama's policies aren't that good, even though he had just said they were.

2) "I've never concealed my admiration and affection for Senator McCain.  I think he's a great man."  This is a different take than the Obama camp's claim that McCain has become dishonorable.  Do you think Clinton is staying on the polite side in case McCain wins, so that no one can claim he went negative on McCain in case of a Hillary run?More...

3) "I think Obama/Biden will win, but I don't think you'll see it clearly, barring some unforeseen development, like something happens in the debates we don't know about."  This is one of the stranger statements.  He could've meant that Obama might win the debates handily or vice versa.  But knowing how the Clintons operate, is there an unforeseen development they are planning to preserve the chance of a Hillary run?  

4) In response to a question about whether he was surprised by the Palin bounce for the McCain Campaign?  "No, she's an instinctively effective candidate.  And with a compelling story.  And I think it was exciting to some that she was a woman.  It was exciting that she was from Alaska.  It's exciting that she's sort of like the person she is.  And she grew up, she came up in a political culture and a religious culture that is probably well to the right of the American center, but she basically didn't define herself in those terms.  She basically said this is where I'm from and I'm not going to impose this on you.  This is what I want to do that I think we can all be a part of.  So, she handled herself very well.  So, no, I wasn't surprised.  I think that.  I disagree with them on a lot of these issues and that's why I have to (side - unintelligible)  for my party affiliation.  I would be for Senator Obama and Senator Biden anyway.  But I get why she's done so well.  It (was or is - unintelligible) a mistake to underestimate her.  She's got good intuitive skills that are significant."  Now, if this wasn't meant to undercut Obama, then I don't know what it is.  Maybe he is trying to separate himself and Hillary from the extreme liberal fringe of his party, so that when Hillary gets to run, she can't be cast as an extreme liberal.  It also shows that the Clintons never took part in bashing Palin for where she came from or what she represents.  This was the weirdest part of the interview.

All in all, Clinton put in a lot of "buts" after his pro-Obama statements.  There are so many subtexts to his qualifications that it's hard to tell exactly what he thinks.  This is no surprise coming from a masterful politician of the vague.  The Obama camp won't be too happy about some of his statements, which can be seen as planting more seeds of doubt.

Update:  Here is a post we just put up where two former Hillary supporters just endorsed John McCain today.

(Click here to see the video )  

Obama Economic Plan 4.0 - Like Monkeys Randomly Typing - Michael Eden

Excerpts:

And now, great googly-moogly, there’s already an AP story about “Obama to meet economic advisers to offer new plans.”   .... Tell you what; elect me President, and I promise to keep randomly throwing darts at the economic system until some of them actually stick.

More...
 AND:

A vote for Barack Obama is a vote to put the most inexperienced, the most liberal, the most radical, the most “loyalty-to-party-first” candidate - who has voted with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid over 95% of the time - we’ve ever seen run for President.  And he is hip deep in the pockets of the people who caused this mess.  Obama is second on the list of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign money recipients only after fellow Democrat Chris Dodd; and he is second on the list of Lehman Bros’ campaign money recipients only after fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton.   And Obama has key campaign advisors - such as Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines, and Jamie Gorelick- who personally made tens of millions of dollars from these very institutions.

We can not afford a Barack Obama presidency.  Aside from the fact that he is massively part of the problem he is now trying to hang on others, he simply doesn’t have a clue how to navigate the nation out of a crisis such that few have seen in their lifetimes.

(Click here to read the full article) 

Obama Is Stoking Racial Antagonism - Rush Limbaugh, Wall Street Journal

Excerpt:

I understand the rough and tumble of politics. But Barack Obama -- the supposedly postpartisan, postracial candidate of hope and change -- has gone where few modern candidates have gone before.

More...
Mr. Obama's campaign is now trafficking in prejudice of its own making. And in doing so, it is playing with political dynamite. What kind of potential president would let his campaign knowingly extract two incomplete, out-of-context lines from two radio parodies and build a framework of hate around them in order to exploit racial tensions? The segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s were famous for such vile fear-mongering.

Here's the relevant part of the Spanish-language television commercial Mr. Obama is running in Hispanic communities:

"They want us to forget the insults we've put up with . . . the intolerance . . . they made us feel marginalized in this country we love so much."

Then the commercial flashes two quotes from me: ". . . stupid and unskilled Mexicans" and "You shut your mouth or you get out!"

And then a voice says, "John McCain and his Republican friends have two faces. One that says lies just to get our vote . . . and another, even worse, that continues the policies of George Bush that put special interests ahead of working families. John McCain . . . more of the same old Republican tricks."

Much of the media that is uninterested in Mr. Obama's connections to unrepentant 1970s Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright have so far gone along with the attempt to tie me to Mr. McCain  ....And more to the point, these sound bites are a deception, and Mr. Obama knows it.

(Click here to read the full article) 

Obama Bundler And Former Advisers' Connections To Fannie Mae

Excerpt:

The ad below speaks about Jim Johnson, former Fannie Mae CEO and former adviser and bundler to Barack Obama.

Text:

ANNCR: What Obama says…

BARACK OBAMA: It would be unacceptable for executives of these institutions to earn a windfall.

ANNCR: …Is not what he does.

Meet Jim Johnson, former Fannie Mae CEO. Fannie cooked the books and Johnson made millions.

Then Obama asked him to pick his VP. And raise thousands for his campaign.

Barack Obama. More empty words.

 (Click here to read the full article) 

How a Massive Obam Defeat becomes a Vicotry - Tom in Paine

Excerpt:

Not only is Obama completely unqualified to be President and on that basis alone should be defeated, but for those Democrats who have never wanted to see a Republican elected over a Democrat, they should be reminded that it was Obama who said earlier this year that the Republicans were the party of ideas. He has reversed himself on so many positions that now are aligned with Republican positions so he can pander to Republican voters in the general election ( FISA, gun control, off shore drilling) that John McCain is actually more at odds with the Republican Party than Obama. Another tid bit psychiatrists will find fascinating to study in the year to come.

A massive defeat of Obama, one of Reagan - Mondale like proportions will not only keep an unqualified and untrustworthy, and certainly undeserving candidate out of the White House, it would have the secondary, longer lasting, and immediate benefit of ridding the party of those who corrupted it in the first place and produced the coming fiasco.

(Click here to read the full article)  

NWPC-WA - Nice to see they adhere to their mission!!

I received this in my inbox today from NWPC-WA (copied below).  Nice
to see they adhere to their mission statement of:

"The NWPC is a multi-partisan grassroots membership organization
dedicated to increasing the number of women in elected and appointed
office at all levels of government. Our mission is to identify,
mentor, educate and support women leaders in our community who
demonstrate a commitment to Reproductive Freedom and Women's Economic
and Social Equality.

We believe that when more women are at the table where decisions are
being made, it fundamentally shifts the agenda resulting in more women
and family-friendly policy."

Of course nothing matters to "feminists" other than Reproductive
Freedom! More...
________________________________________________________________

Hello, Caucus Members and Friends!

What a month it has been!

Hillary's speech at the Democratic National Convention was inspiring
as she threw her support behind the Democratic nominee, Barak Obama. I
was honored to co-author an op-ed with Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles
(D-36) about our experiences at the convention and perspective on a
unified Democratic Party.

John McCain announced his running mate on the Republican ticket,
Governor Sarah Palin.  Acknowledging that his selection of Governor
Palin is a recognition of the importance of women's support and votes
in this election and of the leadership capabilities of women, the NWPC
announced it would not be supporting her candidacy.  NWPC President
Lulu Flores said in a release that it is "unfortunate that their
position on issues of fundamental importance to our members preclude
us from supporting her."

Regardless, this will be a historic election that is capturing the
attention of millions worldwide and giving us all much to think
about.  The September 22nd issue of Newsweek, with the cover "What
Women Want" includes this article: From Seneca Falls to...Sarah Palin?
that is worth a read (and our own Sen. Patty Murray gets a mention).

They want fairer media (the NEWSWEEK Poll found that 34 percent of
white women think the media have been too critical of Palin, and that
one quarter of Clinton supporters agree). And to see more mothers
making decisions that affect their lives. To have the chance to run
for office alongside men without being called hags or fools. And, as
Aretha Franklin might say, a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Linda Mitchell
NWPC-WA President

Obama's Limbaugh Ad Causes Stir by Larry Rother

ACCURACY This advertisement is misleading. Mr. McCain’s history on the immigration issue, though complicated, is misrepresented here, as is his relationship with the nativist wing of his party and Mr. Limbaugh. With Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Mr. McCain sponsored overhaul legislation in 2006. He later backed away from his own bill for reasons still being debated, and though he now says the borders must be secured first, he has not repudiated his support for the principle. (He has tried in his own advertisements to shift the blame for the bill’s failure to Mr. Obama.) On the campaign trail, Mr. McCain has also repeatedly praised the Hispanic contribution to American life. Not one of the anti-Hispanic slights in the advertisement came from Mr. McCain’s mouth. And while Mr. McCain has mentioned the failure of the effort to overhaul immigration in one of his own Spanish-language advertisements, he has not celebrated it.

SCORECARD A Spanish-language proverb says it best: “Tell me who you walk with, and I will tell you who you are.” This is an exercise in guilt by association, meant to taint Mr. McCain with Latino voters. But in the Republican presidential debates, he took pains to separate himself from the anti-immigrant posture of candidates like Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and Mr. Limbaugh has often attacked Mr. McCain. So while Mr. McCain may need to explain why the Republican platform does not reflect his views on immigration, little in his record justifies this attack, which strongly implies that he holds anti-Hispanic views.
(Click here to read the full article) 

What Obama’s top picks in science and foreign policy say about an O-Admin

Obama has picked a science team. One may wonder what priorities an Obama administration would have, and one way to decipher those priorities is by looking at his top picks.
For example, Obama’s top foreign policy advisors are somewhat telling of his priorities
-- Susan Rice, a former Assistant secretary of state for African affairs. She has pushed hard for a tougher response to the Darfur crisis in Africa --Anthony Lake, national security advisor to Clinton. Mr. Lake is noted for his open criticism of the Clinton admin for failure to stop the genocide in Rwanda.

These headliners on his foreign policy team give us an idea of which part of the globe Mr. Obama might place heavy focus on during his admin, for better or worse.

Obama’s Science team is also somewhat telling. One pick is an expert on malaria, another is committed to improving health in the developing world and sharing western science information with the
developing world , another is an expert in crop development and former member of Monsanto’s Board of Directors (Monsanto is a leader in agricultural biotech that will aid crops in developing countries), another has argued against the privatization of commercial space flight, and another is a vocal critic of creationism (as anyone with a thinking brain should be, we say!), another a Nobel “laureate who used his prize money to defend academic freedom against the war on terror” which presumably translates into less restricted visas for foreign scientists coming into the U.S.

Now I like all the folks on the team and applaud their work. But I also know that Clinton waited until he was out of office to focus on his mission to improve global health. My question is one of balance. How much should a sitting president focus on humanitarian concerns to other countries and how much should he focus on the national interests of the U.S. And of course those are not mutually exclusive, but there will be many times when a president must put the concerns of his country above those of other countries…one reason few want the job-- hard choices must often be made to put the U.S. as the #one priority even when that is a very difficult stand to make.

What I have seen thus far of Obama is a man so internally polarized that I do not find him mentally ready to take the stands that may well need to be taken.

(Click on the title of the post to read the full article) 

President Kennedy's 'Tax Fairness' vs. Obama & Biden's Neighborly Tax Patriotism

Excerpt:

Tax hikes, for any bracket, are not the answer; a return to budgetary responsibility is the answer. I have seen this game before, 6 years ago in Illinois, the governor ran on a platform of fixing the states budgetary problems and initiating sweeping social reforms and expansion. 6 years later, the budget deficit has ballooned, increased fees on businesses have driven businesses and professionals out of the state, the teachers pension system was bonded (put into debt) for billions of dollars, the state has now privatized it's lottery system and government layoffs and closures hit the paper every day.More...

Senator Obama's tax proposals are nothing more than a blatant move toward the tax systems in place across much of Europe. Tax systems based upon socialism and the unfair redistribution of wealth. European tax systems were based upon the same populist rhetoric as Senator Obama proposes. If you believe that a move toward European tax systems is a right move, then why is it that their economies have always lagged behind ours?

President Kennedy understood that our nation needed a broader tax base, a tax base that would not suffer dramatic down-ticks and up-ticks as the exonomy fluctuated. Kennedy pushed for top down tax cuts, as he understood that this would spurn investment. Now I personally don't believe that this nation needs further tax cuts for anyone at this point; what we first need is a return to fiscal prioritization and fiscal responsibility.

Senator Obama, you are no Jack Kennedy!

 (Click here to read the full article) 

Pelosi and Reid Blew It - Andrew Cline, The American Spectator

Excerpt:

Believe it or not, entering the final quarter of the eighth year of the George W. Bush presidency, Republicans are ascending in popularity, Politico.com reported yesterday. Half of registered voters and half of independent voters have a favorable opinion of the GOP, according to a new poll from the Pew Center for the People and the Press. Democrats hold a slight edge in favorability among registered voters (55 percent to 50 percent), but they are statistically tied with Republicans among independent voters (Republicans 50 percent, Democrats 49 percent.)

How could this happen? Anyone half-paying attention for the past eight years can rattle off the list of reasons voters are supposed to be fleeing the GOP: Iraq, Katrina, Wall Street, Abramoff, DeLay, Bridge to Nowhere, bin Laden at large, gas prices, and home mortgages. When Democratic presidential candidates dream, they dream of election years like this one.More...

And yet since August the Republicans have closed an 18 point gap with Democrats among independent voters. A new Gallup poll finds that Democrats have only a three-point edge (within the margin of error) when people are asked which party they want to control Congress.

I think the answer is pretty clear: The Democratic leadership in Congress took the golden opportunity it was given in 2006 and pissed it away on petty partisanship -- just like the Republicans who preceded them did.

(Click here to read the full article) 

Campaign Lies, Media Double Standards - Stuart Taylor, National Journal

Excerpts:

Some who have been admirers of John McCain think that the war hero has debased himself by using gross distortions to trash Barack Obama and his record. Others see the media fury over McCain's campaign ads as more evidence of a double standard driven by liberal bias at most major news organizations.

Both are right. Although each candidate is responsible for many distortions...Obama may have pulled even with McCain in the race to the bottom, or even ahead of him, by launching a scurrilously dishonest new Spanish-language TV ad. It misleadingly portrays McCain "and his Republican friends" as anti-immigrant bigots who say "lies just to get our vote." It also associates McCain with deceptively out-of-context quotes by Rush Limbaugh - no friend of McCain's -- about "stupid and unskilled Mexicans." Jake Tapper of ABC News provides details at http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/from-the-fact-1.html.)

More...

AND:

Consider also a fascinating Washington Post piece by Shankar Vedantam on September 15. He cites studies showing not only that "misinformation can exercise a ghostly influence on people's minds [even] after it has been debunked"--especially among those predisposed to believe it--but also that refutations sometimes backfire by increasing the number of people who believe the original misinformation.

The studies found this refutation "backfire effect" among conservatives but not liberals. Part of the explanation may be that conservatives have more- rigid views than liberals, as political scientists quoted by Vedantam suggest. And part of it may be that conservatives have more reason to distrust the usual refuters.

(Click here to read the full article) 

What's the Top Electoral College State This Year? By Stuart Rothenberg

Colorado flag


Excerpt:

As the presidential race has developed, those five states seem to hold the same predictive value now that they did then. Sure, there are a handful of additional states that could turn the election to either Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) -- New Hampshire, New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina -- but the longer the list, the less it tells us about who'll win.

I've become convinced that my initial list of five states probably can be boiled down to just one -- one state that is most likely to determine who will be the next occupant of the White House. And that state is Colorado.

(Click here to read the full article) 

Sen. John McCain was tortured for five years and Jewish Democrats cannot stand up to some threatening phone calls from Barack Hussein Obama's campaign.

 Excerpt:

 Let me begin this little rant by saying I am a Christian who supports Israel 100%.  Having cleared that up, the radical Left wing Democratic Jews are NUTS and their decision to un-invite Gov. Sarah Palin from the protest of Iran at the United Nations proves they are putting American politics before Israel's safety and the safety of America.

(Click here to read the full article)

Racism Becomes Excuse for Obama Supporters - Investor's Business Daily

Excerpt:

Election '08: The supporters of the first post-racial candidate keep bringing it up. Racism is the new refuge of scoundrels. The real issue is not the color of Obama's skin, but the thickness of it.

For a time, Barack Obama was riding "the chance to make history" train, garnering huge support on that issue alone. Then came the GOP nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, an outlet for disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters and hockey moms, plus a different way to make history.

Once "hope" and "change" had to be defined as more than a podium sign, and Obama had to speak on occasion without a teleprompter, avoiding the joint town hall meetings he promised John McCain, it became apparent that it was not change for the better Obama was offering.

(Click here to read the full article)  
Listen to Audio Version

State Polls

McCain still closing in on Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, PA, Colorado, maintaining gains in Florida, GA, VA:

• Big Ten Battleground Polls
  
  • Minnesota: Obama 47, McCain 45
  • Wisconsin: Obama 45, McCain 44
  • Iowa: Obama 45, McCain 45
  • Indiana: McCain 47, Obama 43
  • Pennsylvania: Obama 45, McCain45
  • Michigan: Obama 48, McCain 44
  • Ohio: Obama 46, McCain 45
• More State Polls
  
  • Virginia: McCain +2; McCain +7
  • Colorado: Obama +1; Obama +10
  • New Mexico: Obama +8; Obama +7
  • Florida: McCain +6; Tied
  • Georgia: McCain +8, McCain +16